But What Do You Want?

Often we focus on what our dogs are doing that we don't want.  But here is a secret - if you can define what you would like your dog to do in that situation, and the steps to teach that, you will make more progress towards your goal.

Recently I was reminded of this in my own life, as adolescent Liv started barking more and more when it was time to go outside first thing in the morning, and when I got home at night after teaching classes.  I did the usual shushing her, and as you can probably guess, it didn't do anything.  It wasn't until I stepped back and put on my dog trainer hat that I saw change.

The first thing I considered is what did I want her to do - wait quietly.   

The next question was how do I get her to do that?
Since we had started working on the concept of place in the kitchen, and she understood to be there quietly in hopes of receiving an intermittent kibble, I decided to use that concept to break the cycle of barking.

When we go to the door to go outside, I would cue Liv to go to her designated spot, in this case a little dog bed.  I would reward her for that, and then reward her frequently for remaining there.  I kept a little container of kibble nearby so it was handy for me to reach.  Over the next few days, I gradually reduced the frequency of treats, as she demonstrated the ability to wait quietly.

Liv in her spot

Now we have much quieter trips to the door!

Somethings I had to be careful of:

• Not creating a behaviour chain of Liv barking, then getting sent to her spot and getting a treat.  That order of events would likely not result in the barking stopping.  Instead, I would cue her to go to her spot before she started barking.
• Waiting too long between treats to start, so Liv would start barking.  Starting with a high reward frequency allowed me to capture the quiet waiting behaviour I wanted, and made it clear to Liv what was being rewarded.
• Treating right after she barked.  If Liv did leave her spot and bark, or bark on her spot, I would tell her to shush, and if she was off her spot, send her to it, and then I would wait before rewarding her.  This decreases the likelihood she would bark to try and get me to give her a treat.
• Always rewarding on the same interval.  Our dogs have internal clocks.  If Liv always got a treat after a set time, say 2 seconds for example, if I then waited longer to give a treat, she'd be likely to bark in protest because she wouldn't understand why she didn't get one after 2 seconds.  By randomizing that interval, I could avoid most of that.

Some things I might change:
The plan I made for this situation was for this dog. 

• I knew Liv already had an understanding of place, so it likely would be something she could do without barking.  If she hadn't already had that understanding, I would have needed to either teach it first or come up with another solution.  Teaching a new skill in the moment you need it doesn't tend to go well.
• I knew Liv was prone to action prompting barking, as she's tried it before in other situations.  So I knew I had to be careful not to have her switch from barking because she's excited (and perhaps to prompt me to hurry up) to barking to prompt me to give her a treat.  Not all dogs are as prone to this, and some might be more prone than her.

That's why it's important to tailor a behaviour change plan to the individual dog.  While a general protocol can give a plan, dogs are individuals and adjustments to the plan are often needed.

But she's not just being quiet on her own.
That's true.  But being quiet on her own was unlikely to happen, she needed the extra support of something to do.  Over time, once she's no longer barking and just waiting quietly without me needing to say anything, I can get rid of her spot.  But if I try and do that too soon, she'll just revert back to barking.  Habits take time to change, for dogs and people!  In her case, some additional maturity will help too.  In the meantime, I get quiet so for me and my situation, it's an acceptable work around until she's ready.

I've done something similar in the past, with a dog that would jump up on the door when it was time to go out.  With her, I had her sit before I opened the door.  That way, she would offer sitting while waiting for me to open the door, instead of jumping up.  The door jumping resolved, and never returned.

Hopefully this helps you if you are faced with a situation where you would like your dog to do something different instead of what they are doing.  And, if you'd like some help coming up with alternate behaviours, or breaking down the steps, I offer private lessons in which we can do just that.